REVIEW: The Industry by Natasha Rocca Devine

[ghostpixie]

“Jaysus, this isn’t a bad start at all!” Um, yes. Yes, it was a bad start. When an author describes even minor characters’ appearances in detail within the first few pages? Yeah, that’s not the best sign.

Oh, how I wanted to enjoy The Industry. I really, really did (want to enjoy it, that is). Alas, I did not. Not one bit.
The book is about a girl named Alanna who leaves her hometown in Ireland to move to London, ideally to make a name for herself in entertainment. I guess the book is supposed to be about Alanna stooping to new lows to help with that name-making, but I couldn’t stomach reading far enough to find out what lows those were.

First things first, the third person present tense thing was weird. I’ve never seen it before in a book. And it was more than a little off-putting. Plus, the tenses tended (ha ha) to shift around a lot, from past to present and back again. A huge no.

The dialogue. Oh ‘Jaysus’, the dialogue. What’s with describing each and every single character’s accent? Is that really necessary? And writing out said accents, too! Okay, I know Alanna is Irish. You can tell us she’s Irish, and we can fill in the blanks in our reading imagination without having to literally read the accent, you know? Plus, the way the characters spoke with each other was utterly unrealistic. The gay characters were stereotypically gay in their speech, calling Alanna ‘sista’ and whatnot. And there’s even a character with a Russian accent AND a lisp, and that was just written out… strangely. (‘Dennizth’ instead of ‘Dennis’, for example.)

I couldn’t get but 15% through this book before I had to stop, for my sanity’s sake. There are other comments I could make, but just pointing out these blatant problems with The Industry were enough, I think. I feel like if this book was edited more and fixed up, it could be great! It’s just not there right now, not at all. So for now? Save yourself the trouble.

Rating: 1/5